Balloon-borne Observations of the Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background

宇宙微波背景辐射(CMBR)是早期宇宙遗留下来的遗物，它起源于我们生活的宇宙所在的大爆炸。CMBR天空中亮度的变化留下了物质在创造约30万年后分布的印记，CMBR的线性偏振可以提供更早时代的信息，仅在创造后几分之一秒。该奖项支持对1998-1999年南极长时间气球飞行所获得的CMBR数据进行持续分析，支持对先前的有效载荷进行修正以测量极化，并支持南极的另一次飞行。从事这项工作的研究团队很可能是世界上该领域的领导小组。

The cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) is a relic left over from the early universe and it has its origin in the "big bang" in which the universe that we live in was created. The variations in brightness on the sky of the CMBR carry the imprint of the distribution of matter about 300,000 years after creation and the linear polarization of the CMBR can provide information from even earlier times, just a fraction of a second after creation. This award provides support for the on-going analysis of CMBR data obtained by an Antarctic long-duration balloon flight in 1998-99, for the development of modifications for the earlier payload to measure polarization and for another Antarctic flight. The research team doing this work is probably the leading group in the world for the field.